Battle of Isaszeg

The Battle of Isaszeg on April 6, 1849 took place 22 km east of Budapest and was part of the Hungarian War of Independence . After the action of the Hungarians via Szolnok on Czegled on Pest , troops under Jellacic were defeated at Tapio-Biskce and pursued to Isaszeg . The widely separated Imperial Austrian troops under Field Marshal Prince Windischgrätz were attacked by the Hungarians under General Görgey at Hatvan and Gödöllő . The Hungarians attacked the Croats with two corps under Klapka and Damjanich . Prince Windisch-Grätz had advanced with the main force, but could not support the Banus Jellacic sufficiently in the following battle near Isaszeg. The battle on the Hungarian right wing remained undecided late into the night. In the middle, where the 2nd and 3rd Corps were fighting, there was no quick decision. The banus initially offered stubborn resistance, but eventually had to retreat to the nearby mountain heights. The victory at Isaszeg had been won by the Hungarian Landwehr against well-trained imperial troops.

prehistory

After the Battle of Kápolna (February 26 and 27, 1849), Prince Windisch-Grätz believed the main Hungarian army had been defeated. On March 3, he wrote to the imperial court in Olomouc that he had defeated the Hungarian rebels and would be moving into Debreczen (the temporary capital of the Kossuth government) in a few days ".

Banus Josip Jellacic

The Hungarian main army under the corps leaders Klapka, Damjanich and Pöltenberg , however, resumed operations in the second half of March. Units from Windisch-Grätz were attacked at Szolnok on March 15 and at Losoncz on March 24, with 800 Hungarians under Major Lajos Beniczky throwing back the imperial detachment under Colonel Károly Almásy. Almásy reported that he had been attacked by several thousand Honvéd to justify his defeat. After this report, Windisch-Grätz received the wrong opinion that the Hungarians wanted to bypass his left in order to lift the existing siege of the fortress of Komorn .

On March 17, General Görgey took over the command of the Honvéd Army as Dembinski's successor . After Windisch-Grätz considered conquering Komorn's fortress, the main Hungarian power advanced on March 23 to relieve relief on the Mező-Túr-Török-Szent-Miklós line. General Klapka worked out a plan for a new offensive. Windisch-Grätz and his approximately 45,000-strong army were to be encircled and destroyed in the Gödöllő area, east of Budapest. The 7th Corps under General Gaspar was supposed to attract the troops from Schlick, while three other corps crossed the river Tisza to the west.

The Hungarians met again on April 2nd with the Austrian Schlick Corps , which had orders to unite with the main army in Jászberény . Half surrounded, Schlik's troops were able to fight their way free and escape. On April 4, further battles followed, in which the Hungarians advancing south met the Jellacic Corps. The attacks of the Hungarian cavalry and the 3rd and 9th Honvéd battalions under Damjanich penetrated the Battle of Tápió Bicske over the Tápió bridge and drove the Croats back to Gödöllő. On April 5, Prince Windisch-Grätz issued new dispositions: The II. Corps under FML Wrbna was to retreat to cover Pesth, while the other two corps were to take up defensive positions against an expected Hungarian attack. The Schlik corps blocked the northern approaches to Gödöllő, while the Jellacic corps was supposed to move the route to the west at Isaszeg to the south.

The battle

Franz Freiherr von Ottinger

The imperial army under Windisch-Grätz numbered around 54,000 men, including 43,800 infantry, 10,000 horsemen and 214 artillery pieces. The Banus Jellacic, which was actually in the main battle, had around 18,000 men, 11,500 of them infantry, 5,500 horsemen, 1,560 artillerymen and 68 artillery pieces. The total number of Hungarian armed forces led by Artur Görgey was 41 battalions and 61 squadrons with around 47,500 men, including 29,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 198 artillery pieces. The strongest corps, the 7th under General Gáspár, was supposed to attract the attention of the main imperial power at Hatvan, while the other three corps (1st, 2nd and 3rd) were to get behind the main enemy corps to get around it from the capital Cut off plague. The Hungarian army was drawn apart on a front line about 22 kilometers long, this setup made it possible to concentrate two thirds of the army in a short time. The front of the imperial army was stretched to 54 kilometers because it also had to cover Pest.

The battle began at 1 p.m. on April 6 and lasted almost until 8 p.m., almost seven hours. Jellacic had posted his divisions under Hartlieb , Dietrich and Schulzig on the hills behind the Rákos brook, the right wing extended as far as Peczel, west of Isaszeg. A brigade had advanced in Königswald and to Királyerdő, a brigade and the artillery were set up behind the Rakos brook west of Isaszeg, a brigade was advancing to Isaszeg and the Ottinger cavalry brigade was to the north of it. The swampy Rákos brook was not easy for the attackers to cross, the hills in front of it were between 30 and 50 meters high. The imperial III. Von Schlik's corps was set up further to the north: the Lobkowitz division was facing the enemy and the Liechtenstein division was only advancing behind it via Gödöllö.

At 1 p.m. the Hungarian advance guard appeared at Isaszeg: the 1st Corps under Klapka, followed by the 3rd Corps under Damjanich. The 7th Corps (Division Kmety and Division Pöltenberg) was formed within Hévízgyörk and on the north side of this place. General Gaspar initially hesitated to attack the Austrians on the right wing. General Görgey had given orders to bind the enemy and, if necessary, to free up reserves for the central section intended for the main attack. The Hungarian 1st Corps (Dessewffy and Mariassy Divisions and Mesterhazy Cavalry Brigade) advanced east of Isaszeg and Tápió. Damjanich's 3rd Corps (Wysocki and Nagy-Sandor Division, and Kaszonyi Cavalry Brigade) and Aulich's 2nd Corps (Szekulicz Division and Hertelendy Division, and Handy Cavalry Brigade) arrived at the battlefield at 3 p.m.

The battle of the Hungarian 1st and 3rd Corps for possession of the Royal Forest began at 2 p.m. The Croatian Brigades Gramont and Rasztic held the forest to the southeast of Isaszeg. Some of Damjanich's battalions entered the forest from the north, while Klapka's troops advanced on the southern edge of the forest. Chasing the retreating imperial troops, Klapkas Honvéd were the first to cross the Rákos. To help his defeated brigade, Jellacic deployed a few battalions from his main position, which succeeded in pushing Klapka's units back again. Damjanich's battalions were then left alone, but the latter did not withdraw, but instead sent his second brigade forward to support the open left flank and personally ordered the attack by his infantry on Isaszeg. The Hungarian infantry suffered heavy losses when they were caught by the Austrian artillery from the other side of the stream. Unexpected artillery fire also came from the north of Isaszeg, where General Schlik and the Liechtenstein division also advanced via Azod against the right flank of the Hungarians to support Jellacic.

Despite two hours of cannon fire and the request of his brigade commanders, General Gáspár (7th Corps) strictly adhered to Görgey's earlier orders not to attack Schlik offensively. His inaction put Damjanich's right wing in a difficult position. The Wysocki division held out here sternly against the now superior enemy force. Damjanich improvised with his last two reserve battalions, the 3rd Honvéd Battalion of the Polish Legion, which stopped and threw the enemy back in four successive waves of attack. On the southern part of the front too, the situation developed in favor of the Hungarians. General Aulich and the army commander Görgey appeared on the battlefield with their troops to give Klapka's infantry time to regroup his troops to attack and to resume fighting on the left flank of 3rd Corps. Under enemy fire his troops initially swayed, but the strong support from the 2nd Corps, which rushed over Dány and Zsámbok, brought the decisive success.

Prince Windisch-Grätz arrived at around 3 p.m., recognized the danger of his troops being encircled if he proceeded further and decided to break off the fight. He deployed most of his cavalry under Ottinger's command northeast of Isaszeg across the river in open terrain to cover the retreat of the infantry. Aulich's batteries, which were deployed to support the 3rd Corps, shook the counterattack. However, twelve fresh cuirassier squadrons managed to wade over the Rákos and together with 14 hussar squadrons to throw back the Hungarian cavalry brigade under Colonel Nagy-Sándor .

Eventually the fight was decided by the victory of the Hungarian center's left flank. Klapka's and later Aulich's actions drove the imperial infantry out of the Königswald and then also out of Isaszeg, the last place had already been set on fire. Jellacic gave up his positions around 8 p.m. and withdrew towards Gödöllő. The stubborn troops under Damjanich and Schlik fought late into the night. The fight only ended when Windisch-Grätz, belatedly informed about the withdrawal of the 1st Corps, ordered Schlik to withdraw his troops through Gödöllő.

Losses and consequences

Isaszeg was a first turning point in the war. The Hungarian losses amounted to 1,200 men, the Austrians had lost 2,000 men. The Hungarians achieved a decisive victory and were able to occupy Gödöllő the following day. On April 7, the demoralized Austrian army withdrew across the Danube, Pest fell into the hands of the Hungarians again. Until the Russian intervention in June, the Austrians were on the defensive and had to retreat west to the Waag for a month . President Lajos Kossuth deposed the ruling house in Debreczen on April 14th and declared Hungary to be independent in the new "imperial constitution".

literature

Pauer: The Isaszeg campaign in 1849 from the Austrian military magazine 1907 / Volume 1, pp. 539 f., 727 f., 867 f.
Rudolph Kiszling: The Revolution in the Austrian Empire 1848 to 1849 , Volume 2, Vienna 1949.
József Bánlaky : A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme , 3 volumes, (Budapest 1928–1942), Book XXI. Magyarország 1848/49
Friedrich Jakob Heller von Hellwald : The winter campaign 1848–1849 , Leopold Sommer Vienna 1851

Web links

Remembrance of Isaszeg from Austrian soldiers' friend No. 44 , p. 184, p. 188 , Vienna 1852